Planning

Begin

Define Fields

Radio buttons

Pop-up Menu

Date

Value List

Checkbox

Number

Summary

Grand Summary

Sort & Page view

Data Entry

Harnessing

Loverly Layout

New View

Find

Find by date

Find by first letter

Calculating Radio Buttons

Mailing labels

Importing one database into another

Database Quiz

Database Ideas

Database in class

Database Graduation Project

Databases for kids

Science Fair Handbook

Database Entry and Use

So you've ventured into the unknown and made your own database. Excellent!! Here are some entry and use tips to ease your filling it with data.

1. To make a new record go .. r or Edit .. New record.

2. To banish a record

1. Select the record by clicking on it.
2. Go Edit .. Delete record. You cannot use the delete key nor is there a keyboard command.

3. To speedily move through the record entering info use the tab key. It will move you through the fields in the order they were created. You can adjust the tab order to meet your needs.

4. The worst thing that can happen to you is that you lose your database data through virus or corruption. The larger the data the more heartbreaking this lose can be. I urge to to keep a back up copy. Save As is an easy way to keep a copy or you could duplicate the file and drag it elsewhere.

5. The next most worst thing that can happen to you is to lose info you have just laboriously added to your database. I urge you to save after each new record is added and after making a change to the database that pleases you... s is so easy!

6. When you use a Find command, you'll reduce the records you see to the ones that match the Find. Don't panic. The others are all still in there.

Go Organize .. Show All Records to bring them all back in view.

7. In addition to the browse view, you can see your data in a List view. List is basically a spreadsheet - rows and columns view of your data. Go Layout .. List.

To return to Browse View go Layout .. Browse.

8. When I embark on enhancing my database, in a way that may lose data or records, I work on a copy. That way, if I am unhappy with the results I can just trash the file and try again. To make a copy

9. Duplicate a record. Sometimes I already have a record entered and the one I am about to enter bears almost all the same data. I could type it all in again in a new record. But clever computer user that I am I duplicate the record and make the small changes instead.

To duplicate a record: Click on the record to select it. Go Edit . Duplicate Record. The duplicate record is added to the end of the database.

10. Printing I can think of lots of occasions where I would print parts of a database. I make labels, I make sorted or find-based subset lists. I would even print a list view with the layout edited to take a list to a sale.

But, I would not print out an entire database in browse view and neither should you. Printing that version is a terrible waste of paper. It negates: Search, Sort, and Find. Label making, mail merge and reports are gone too.

11. Sharing - Never give a database that contains personal information to another person without the permission of every person recorded in the database.

My daughter played soccer for a national organization. In registration, we were required to provide date of birth and SSN. The organization sold the database to a company marketing credit cards. Believe me, I gave the soccer organization's person in charge of this, an angry earful. This was a serious violation of our privacy.

 

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